Thread: Raven Knight's Dream Travels

I fell asleep with my light / sound machine playing and focusing on getting to the moon. Another night with several dream goals. My focus was on getting to the biodome in the moon so that we could start the night with some healing energy. I had been feeling a bit (or maybe more than a bit) unstable the previous evening. While going into my meditation I focused on stabilizing my energy while I focused on the biodome. I slipped into a WILD…

I was in a peaceful place. A beautiful forest glen within the biodome. I looked around. I was not alone. Basara was there. He was looking at me with a concerned look on his face. He asked how I was feeling. I said I was ok. He said I'd been acting pretty nuts. I said I had just been a bit unstable… combined with being tired. Leads to some weird shit. I saw Nomad enter the glen. Selene was with him. We did a healing spell. Everyone was contributing healing energy. Basara was singing, I focused on Full Moonlight, Nomad was playing his didgeridoo, and Selene was calling moonlight healing energy. Golden energy filled the glen, swirling around between us. Some black crap was pulled into the center of the spiral and consumed by the golden energy. The healing energy was sooooo relaxing that my lucidity slipped to semi-lucidity… (Isn't there some way to do this healing without me losing part of my lucidity? )


I knew our goal. Ultimecia. Nomad said I had told him I could track Ultimecia. I remembered getting a bit too good a look at Ultimecia's energy. () I used Through the Never and focused on opening a portal to find Ultimecia. A portal opened. We went through the portal…

On the other side we were in a desolate landscape that looked familiar somehow. The sky was red and had dark red clouds in it. I looked around. Basara, Nomad, Q, Selene, and Nomad were all there. I saw a pillar of energy shooting up into the sky. I could see the silhouette of a woman coming away from the pillar of energy. Q disappeared. Selene flew up into the sky. Nomad looked like Maxx (a big purple guy with sharp claws on his fists…) Basara was on some kind of platform with a force field over it. He had his guitar. The platform flew up into the sky. So now I was standing next to Nomad as the woman arrived. She looked like Ultimecia from Final Fantasy 8. Ultimecia gave me a dirty look and then turned her attention to Nomad. She said he was a fool if he thought he could oppose her. She said she had access to powers he could not even begin to comprehend. I went right up to Ultimecia and looked in her eyes.

"Do you remember me?" I asked her, "Do you know me? I think there must be some reason I see you as Ultimecia. You aren't actually Ultimecia in the flesh… Ultimecia is still locked up. But I am still speaking to Ultimecia, aren't I? You're the one in control. You have been in control for a long time. But what's time to a monster like you? A day, an eternity, it's all the same to you. You’re at it again. Well, it didn't work last time, and it won't work this time. Let this woman go. Let Scarlett go." I wasn't sure where these words came from but they felt true as I spoke them. Ultimecia, an evil being that exists outside of time and bends the flow of time to her own personal goals, has been inside of Scarlett for all this time, molding and manipulating her until the result was the thing that now stood before me.

The woman laughed at me. Her image was still that of Ultimecia. She seemed to find me amusing. "You are alone this time," she said, "Where are your friends? Oh, that's right! The Lord of Light has left for greener pastures. The Lord of Power has disappeared from the face of the reality. The Lord of Darkness doesn't want any part of you. And no one knows where the Lord of Beasts is. You are one of five. This is where the big girls play. You'd better go home and play with your bugs or your rotting corpse will be food for them!"

"Two of five," said a voice behind me. Angelina, Lord of Beasts, was now standing beside me. Nomad didn't look surprised to see her.

"Three of five," said another woman. Pilgrim, Lord of Darkness, was on the other side of Nomad.

"Four of five," said a man on the other side of Angelina. It was Carlo, Lord of Power.

Angelina walked over to Nomad and elbowed him. I could barely hear her whisper.

Ultimecia looked at Nomad. "And I suppose you are going to claim you are…

"Juargawn!" Nomad said.

"Never heard of you," Ultimecia said dismissively.

"You want to be a god, tell HER you are one…" she said, "Tell her you are the new Lord of Light!"

"I am the new Lord of Light because the old one was an asshole," Nomad said.

"That he was," Ultimecia said, "A disgrace to his title. But he still has that title. You are not him."

"Four is enough for the likes of you," Pilgrim said.

"And don't be so sure you know so much about Juargawn," Angelina added.

While Ultimecia had been distracted the others hadn't been idle. A force field appeared around Ultimecia. That was Q's work. Nomad took to the sky and wrapped glowing tendrils around Ultimecia to hold her.

"Reveal the spark!" someone yelled.

I focused on the song. "Hey, now, take a look at me, let me dirty up your mind. I'll strip away your hard veneer, and see what I can find…" I could see the layers of darkness being peeled back. Ultimecia was getting pissed. She pulled to get free. Nomad added more tendrils to hold her in place. Selene shot beams of moonlight in to the opening I had made to hold it open. I was right in front of Ultimecia. Angelina, Pilgrim, and Carlo were at three of the other points of a five pointed star. One point was missing! It wouldn't work!

"Q!" Angelina called, "Take the fifth point!"

Ultimecia / Scarlett was screaming in rage. Q took the fifth point. We had a star around Ultimecia / Scarlett. I used the song Liberate by Disturbed to break Ultimecia's control on Scarlett. The other four contributed their energy through me. The blast of golden energy was massive. It fired directly into the opening and to the spark inside Ultimecia / Scarlett. There was an explosion there… but not enough. Ultimecia / Scarlett broke free of Nomad's tendrils and tore through Selene's moon nets. The opening to the spark collapsed violently and Ultimecia / Scarlett roared in rage.

"Whatever you have will never be enough!" she roared like a thousand angry demons, "I… AM… ETERNAL!" She launched into the sky and punched a hole through Q's force field and was gone.

"Come back here, you flakey jerk!" I called after Ultimecia / Scarlett, "Is that all you know how to do? Run away? Come back here, you cowardly BITCH!"

Everyone was gathering together again. I heard expletives being muttered. The ground started to shake. Fissures were forming in the desolate ground. Everything around me faded to black as I woke.

yeah! destroy that beyotch! she's even been messing with my dreams

Note: this entire dream was non-lucid.

I was on the street. It was one I recognized. The street called Ina where it intersects with Thronydale. I was with Alicia sitting outside Eegee's. We were planning on going over to Bookman's next. We had just finished eating. We got up and were going to head for Bookman's. I spotted something shiny. It was over in the gutter beside Thornydale. I walked over there. Alicia hesitantly followed me. I found money. $20! Cool! There were a lot of other things in the gutter. Sooooo much crap. I had the idea there might be valuable or interesting things in there. I told Alicia I wanted to check for something good. She said that was lame. She would sit at Eegee's and wait for me. She said there was no hurry. The weather was beautiful. And it was. The temperature was perfect, the air was clear, and there was a gentle breeze blowing. Alicia went back over to Eegee's and sat down. She looked content.

I followed the gutter down Thornydale to where it met Ina. I had to wait for the light to change before I could cross. So far all I had found in the gutter was trash. Empty bottles, old papers, discarded boxes, etc. What a mess! I crossed Ina, turned right, and started searching the gutter on Ina. I was now across the street from Bookman's. There were more empty bottles. One wasn't empty. I picked it up. It smelled like raspberries. It was a drink. I tasted it. (Tasting a discarded bottle of who knows what tossed by who knows who? ) It was a bit thick, and it was very good. About half the bottle was left. Someone's loss was my gain. I walked farther, sipping the thick drink.

"Gross!" a woman said when she saw me, "Why are you drinking soap?"

I looked at the bottle again. Now I could see it was raspberry scented hand soap. It sure tasted awful good for soap! I blew a couple of soap bubbles into the air. The woman rolled her eyes and left. I didn't figure it was toxic, but I thought I had drank enough soap for the day. I tossed the soap into the trash. Now I was getting thirsty. Probably from drinking soap. I went into a restaurant. There were vending machines in the entry way. It was a small café. I went for a the vending machines. I had $1.25 in change. That would be enough. The person in front of me got a drink and left. I looked. All they had was Pepsi. I wanted Coke. But they also had tea. I put my money in and selected tea. I got two bottles of product. The Lipton tea I had selected and a bottle of a flavor of SoBe I had never heard of called Inner Flame. It had a picture of a flaming lizard on it. The drink was orange. I tried it. It wasn't orange flavored. It was very good. It quenched my thirst well.

I was ready to leave the café when I saw someone I knew. I saw James, my ex-boyfriend, sitting alone in the café. I wondered where his wife Tina was. I had the idea I needed to say something to him. I had the idea there was something I might need him for. I didn't want to talk to him, but the thing I needed to say felt urgent. Very urgent. I finally took a deep breath and went over to his table.

"Hello," I said, mustering as much warmth as I could, which wasn't much.

James looked up at me. He was surprised to see me. He said he thought I wasn't speaking to him any more.

"I'm not," I said, "Or at least I wasn't… We need to talk. It's important, bigger than both of us."

"Sit down," James said.

I sat down and took a long drink of my SoBe. It seemed to give me the strength to continue. I needed to buy more of this SoBe! I took a deep breath and began talking.

"Ultimecia is back," I said before I even realized what I was going to say.

"That's not my business," James said simply.

"It's not me I'm here for," I said, "She is attacking innocent people. They haven't done anything to either of us. Angelina, Pilgrim, and Carlo are here. I am here. You are the fifth one." I took a deep breath to force the next part out. "We need you." I peered out the window at Bookman's across the street. I didn't want to look at James. I didn't want to see the condescending look I knew was there.

"It's still not my business," James said simply, "I already did my time fighting her."

I was getting pissed now. James was eating a plate of pasta. I stood up and pounded my fist on the table so hard the plate jumped up and fell in his lap. "She's attacking CHILDREN now!" I said, drawing attention from the other patrons of the café, so mad that I was almost in tears. "There's a user on DreamViews. Her username is Morrigan. Ultimecia is attacking her and her children. She has to put all her energy to protect the children so there's no one left to protect her. We fought her earlier. Angelina, Pilgrim, Carlo, and me. Q tried to fill your spot. It didn't work. She got pissed off and attacked even harder! If you don't help, anything Ultimecia does is on you!" Everyone in the café was staring at us now, muttering amongst themselves. I didn't care. I was crying now. "I'm not asking that you give a shit about me. I know you never did. But they have done nothing…"

"Ok," James finally said, "Just sit down." He picked his plate off of his lap and scraped the pasta back onto it, "Having a fit won't help."

"Are you even lucid now?" I asked him, "Do a reality check." (Note: even though I said this I didn't do a reality check myself! )

"I don't dream any more," James said.

"You have to," I said, "Start an account on DreamViews. WWW.Dreamviews.com. The account is free. Read the dream journal of Raven Knight. Of WakingNomad. Of Morrigan. Of Man of Shred. Damn! I don't remember the last one. Something about a poet…"

"I won't remember that," he said.

"Dreamviews! Dreamviews! Dreamviews! Dreamviews!" I said.

"That won't help," James said.

"Marge Simpson believes otherwise," I said, "Dreams are a part of us all on Dreamviews. Dreams are a part of us all on Dreamviews. Dreams are a part of us all on Dreamviews." I pulled a varied quote of Marge Simpson. I sat down at the table again and took another long drink of SoBe to calm my nerves. I wiped my face with a napkin.

"Why did you really come here?" James asked.

"Dreamviews," I said.

"That makes no sense," James said.

"Dreamviews, www.dreamviews.com…" I said.

"Uh… ok," James said. I saw Alicia outside the café. She looked in at me.

"There's Alicia," I said as I pointed. James looked. By the time he looked there was a fat woman at the window.

"She's put on weight," he commented.

"Dreamviews," I said.

"You're a broken record," James said.

"Dreamviews, dreamviews, dreamviews!" I said.

Alicia was behind me now. "What are you talking to him for?" she asked. She didn't wait for an answer. She had a bottle of something gross looking. She poured it over James' head. It was a thick, green substance that smelled like something rejected from a sewer. "That was fun," Alicia said, "Come on, Raven. Let's go."

I got up to go with Alicia. I looked back at James. "Dreamviews. You can use a screen name like Pyro or Lord of Light so I will know you. Or just log on as a guest to read our journals. Dreamviews. WakingNomad. Raven Knight. Man of Shred. Morrigan. And something to do with a poet… damn! I still don't remember!" I finally took James' knife from its pouch on his belt and carved the word DREAMVIEWS.COM on the café table.

"That's vandalism," James said.

"Come to dream land and arrest me," I said as I stabbed the knife in the table and walked off with Alicia. Everything faded to black as I woke.

Wow. Raven, that is so so intense. I figured out what happened, my dream was first, when we battled Scarlett, then she imploded, and warped to her own domain, then we went there.

That is awesome that you had the courage and lucidity to ask him for help.

Hm, I read "Following Ultimecia" two days ago and dreamed about her next day, even recalled about you raven, and was thinking how you beat her, epic dreams of yours, too.

Originally Posted by Walms

Hm, I read "Following Ultimecia" two days ago and dreamed about her next day, even recalled about you raven, and was thinking how you beat her, epic dreams of yours, too.

Please tell me you dreamed about a DC of Ultimecia... I don't want her to be tormenting your dreams, too!

Maybe James isn't right right person to ask, maybe he is. I don't really know, all I know is that you stick together when it comes to things that are five pointed stars (if you get my drift). Lord of light, maybe a lady of light could be used too. I still don't trust James though, maybe that's my problem.

Originally Posted by WarriorTiger

Maybe James isn't right right person to ask, maybe he is. I don't really know, all I know is that you stick together when it comes to things that are five pointed stars (if you get my drift). Lord of light, maybe a lady of light could be used too. I still don't trust James though, maybe that's my problem.

Sure. The 'lords' can be male or female. Angelina, Pilgrim, and I are all women. You volunteering for Light? If James won't help I'm going to insist he forfeit his title since he won't do what he has to do. That can be done.

This is yet another night with big plans. I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on and focusing on finding Allison. That was my first stop. To get Allison lucid and get her to come with me. I closed my eyes and slipped into a WILD…

I was in a strange place. It was an apartment building. I was in one of the interior halls. There were doors on either side of the hall. I saw Allison pounding on one of the doors.

"Come on, honey," she said, "Open the door. I said I'm sorry…"

She seemed upset, like she and Jen had been fighting. I went over to her. She told me Jen was mad at her and wouldn't open the door. I said Jen wasn't there. I said Jen was waiting for us at her forest home. And there would be tea for all. A nice cup of lucidi-tea.

"She's not mad?" Allison asked.

"I don't think so…" I said. I focused on opening a portal to SilverWolf's forest home. A portal opened. We went through it. On the other side we were outside the front door of the house. I knocked. Pixie answered the door and welcomed us in. SilverWolf was inside, mixing some concoction up. She almost dropped one of her ingredients when Allison ran over and gave her a hug. SilverWolf hugged Allison back.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"I'm glad you're not mad any more," Allison said.

Pixie brought some cups of tea and some pieces of fresh bread out. She set it on the table. The bread was banana bread. It was very good. The tea was lucidi-tea. We ate, drank, and talked about dreaming. I asked Allison if she was ready to go to the source. She said yes. She said she had known this would happen from the first time I mentioned that James (my ex) was the lord of light… and a loser. I telepathically called to Q. He appeared. I said I wasn't sure about getting to the blue source. He looked at me strangely. He said that shouldn't be a problem for me. He looked at me a bit longer and then snapped his fingers. The next instant we were somewhere else…

I was with Allison in a temple of some kind. I could see the sky overhead, or at least what I thought must be the sky. It was a bright blue. The temple was amazing. There were intricate carvings in marble, vaulted arches overhead, and it looked like something out of ancient mythology. There was a man and a woman standing in front of us. They seemed to be glowing with blue light from inside. They were dressed in white robes. I didn't see Q. He had disappeared. Allison was looking around.

"Don't forget you're dreaming," I muttered, thinking it would be easy to get distracted by this setting. I felt I had almost been distracted.

"It's been a while since we've seen you," the woman said to me, "It's nice to see you again, although I wish it were under better circumstances."

"So you are claiming that the current lord of light hasn't been fulfilling his duties," the man said, "That is a serious accusation. You must ask one more time, and we will watch to see his reaction. He won't know we are watching so his reaction should be genuine. The image around me changed and now I was in James' apartment. He was sitting on the couch with Tina playing Halo. There was a black cat at my feet. I remembered that he had a black cat named Panther. I scooped the cat into my arms and went over to James.

"James!" I said, trying to get his attention. He turned to look at me. Tina took advantage of the opening to shoot his character and kill him.

"Crap!" James said, "You got me killed, Raven! What are you doing here?"

"This is a dream," I told him, "Do a reality check."

"I have to pay Tina back for that," James said.

"In your dreams," Tina said. She shot James as he respawned.

"Yes," I said, "This is a dream. Pay attention." I used Battery to toast their television so James would have to pay attention to me.

"You will be replacing that, you know," James said.

"Yeah," I said, "Sure I will. But right now I need your help. Ultimecia is back, and it will take all five of us to fight her."

"Not her again," James groaned.

"I'm afraid so," I said, "We're going to face her now. Everyone else is ready. So let's go."

"Nah," James said, "I'd rather play Halo. Replace our TV."

"I'll shove the TV up your ass if you don't get off your ass and come help us complete the star!" I said, "Ultimecia is attacking innocent people! You have to come help!"

"You're obsessed with Ultimecia," James said, "She isn't my problem."

"So you're refusing?" I asked.

"I'm not going," James said.

The man from the temple appeared. He said he'd seen enough. He transported himself, James, and me back to the temple. James looked a bit confused and also a bit annoyed.

"James ******* ******," the man said (he used the full name, I won't post the full name for privacy purposes), "You have been willfully neglectful of your duties as lord of light. I regret to tell you that you are being relieved of your title and the powers that go with it. Summon the Sword of Light."

I don't think James did anything, but the Sword of Light appeared in his hands. He was looking at it in an interested manner. The man took the sword from him. A white light flowed from James into the sword. It was glowing brightly. The man went over to Allison now.

"Normally we would look into the new lord of light a bit more closely," he said, "but this matter is urgent. And Raven has vouched for you, so we are satisfied. It is our pleasure to bestow upon you the Sword of Light, the title of lord of light, and all the powers that come with it." He handed Allison the sword and she took it. White light flowed into Allison. She swung the sword around a couple of times. It disappeared.

"The Sword of Light will be available to you whenever you need it," the woman said, "Just summon it. I am sorry you do not have more time to prepare. We wish you well."

"Thank you," Allison said. She summoned the Sword of Light and swung it around a bit more before making it disappear again. Allison turned to me. "So now we go kick that bitch's ass?"

"Almost," I said, "A quick healing / protection spell on the moon and a stop by the… uh…" I couldn't remember where Nomad had said we needed to go… "some place to receive stronger healing abilities to help free Scarlett from Ultimecia. I don't remember the name of the place…"

I used Through the Never and focused on getting to the biodome. A portal opened. Allison and I went through it. On the other side we were in the biodome. I saw a small pond with colorful fish. Nomad was there in jaguar man form. He was sitting in lotus position floating in the air over the pond. I felt the dream slipping. I told Allison I was waking up but I would be back quickly. Please tell me I'm dreaming when I get back… everything around me faded to black as I woke.

Originally Posted by Raven Knight

Please tell me you dreamed about a DC of Ultimecia... I don't want her to be tormenting your dreams, too!

I guess? It was the one from the game, so yeah lol
And before I forget... did you read the PM I sent you?

I was in a forest clearing. Nomad was there in jaguar man form. He was floating over a pond. He was in lotus position. Allison was there. She was looking at me strangely. I looked back at her. I wondered what she was looking at.

"Yes?" I asked her.

"Are you going to disappear?" she asked.

"I hadn't planned on it…" I said.

"You said you were waking up," she said, "so I thought you would disappear."

"Waking up?" I asked, "I'm not sleeping…"

"Yeah, you are," Allison said, "This is a dream. Did you forget?"

I tried to levitate. I floated off the ground a few feet before landing again. "You're right. This is a dream."

More people started arriving as if it was the beginning of a party. Before long a small group had assembled. Carlo, Pilgrim (Part human, part demon), Angelina, Basara, Q, Link, Sephiroth, Bakura, Spike, Altaïr, Vegeta, Nomad (on the ground now), Selene, Pixie, Allison, Sarnox, MoSh. MoSh gave Nomad a hug. Their hug came in my direction and I got pulled into it. Selene and Pixie got involved in the hug. Spike backed away. "I'll pass on this, mates," he said. We went from that to a group healing. Basara was playing guitar and singing, Nomad was playing his didgeridoo, and I was focused on Full Moonlight. I focused on sending some of the healing energy to Morrigan. A beam of golden energy fired into the sky. The golden energy filled the glen. It was flowing around and through everyone. It was so relaxing that I slipped to semi-lucidity…

The healing spell finished. Allison looked at me strangely. Nomad said we needed to go to the Temple of Angels. He opened a portal and we all went through it. On the other side we were in a temple…

Note: Things get weird here. I have a chunk of missing time. When I try to think about it all I can think of is a thick white fog. I see nothing through it. I don't remember any more dreams until I was with the others in that barren dimension where we have fought Scarlett / Ultimecia before. Now the entire group of us was there. I was still semi-lucid…

We were on a barren landscape with a dark red sky. Red clouds floated in the sky. There was a pillar of energy a little ways off. Our group consisted of:

Allison (wielding the Sword of Light), Carlo, Angelina, Pilgrim, me, Basara (on a silvery disc covered by a force field), Nomad (looking like Maxx), Selene, Pixie, Vegeta (sporting a glare that looked potentially lethal), Spike (trying to imitate Vegeta's glare), Altaïr (standing beside Vegeta), Sarnox (as a druid), Bakura, Link, Sephiroth, Q, MoSh (as a large winged serpent), another Q (no doubt MoSh's Q), yet another Q (Nomad's Q, Sacrosanct), and a big Mastiff sized black Pit Bull dog (snarling menacingly). As I was watching, the Mastiff sized dog became near horse-sized. I remember thinking that was one huge dog…

We all headed towards the pillar of energy. I saw Allison put the Sword of Light away. I figured she wanted to take Ultimecia by surprise. I saw Ultimecia. She was standing beside the pillar waiting. She looked at me, then at Angelina, then at Carlo, then at Pilgrim.

"You're still one short, bug girl," Ultimecia said with a laugh, "Why don't you all do yourselves a favor and go home? This is not your concern. You go home now, you live to tell about it. Deal?"

"No," I said, "Release Scarlett right now and maybe you can avoid having your head ripped off and shoved up your ass!"

"Fine," Ultimecia said as if it was a mere inconvenience that she would have to fight us, "Have it your way."

A whole bunch of things rose out of the ground and a huge fight broke out. I figured all of the distractions were supposed to keep us from focusing attacks on Ultimecia herself. That wasn't going to work. I asked Allison if she knew where she had to be. She said yeah. I went over directly in front of Ultimecia. Some of the weird things she had summoned came after me. Three of them. Nomad intercepted one of them, Spike intercepted another, and the giant serpent swooped from the sky and grabbed the third, crushing it and throwing it to the ground.

"Hey, now, take a look at me, let me dirty up your mind, I'll strip away your hard veneer, to see what I can find…" I focused on that song. The layers of darkness were peeled away so I could see in to the spark. Nomad got into position and launched white glowing tentacles out. As Ultimecia tried to move away from me his tentacles held her in place. Ultimecia seemed angry, and also a bit amused.

"You already tried this once," she snarled, "Haven't you got any new tricks? This is getting boring!"

Selene fired moon beams to hold the layers of darkness back to keep the spark revealed. The various enemies fighting around us all started closing in around us. They were trying to disrupt our attempt. I focused on levitating into the air to get away from them. Nomad flew up into the air, pulling Ultimecia with him as he rose. Carlo, Angelina, and Pilgrim all got at their point of the star. Allison took the final point of the star. Ultimecia looked over at her.

"Another substitute?" she asked, "You really are desperate! At least the last one had some power!"

Allison was not happy with that insult. She told Ultimecia she had better shut the fuck up. No, don't bother. We were going to shut her up. Ultimecia was laughing at Allison. She continued laughing until her laughter was cut short as Allison summoned the Sword of Light. Carlo had the Sword of Power, Pilgrim had the Sword of Darkness, Angelina had a sword with a wolf-head hilt, and I had my Witchblade sword.

"But you're not…" Ultimecia said as she stared at Allison, apparently looking closer than she had before, "You are! You will find out your error, bitch! All you have signed up for is a painful death!" Ultimecia was trying to pull free again. A flying blue dragon sprayed Ultimecia with freezing water that froze all over her and effectively sealed her in ice. She wasn't moving now, but I could still see the rage in her eyes.

All of our swords were connected by energy beams as the star formed this time, and I was focusing on the song Liberate by Disturbed. "Bold mother-f-er won't you liberate your mind this time!" I focused a lot of energy into it. All of the energy I could get hold of. The energy that was coming from the formation of the star. It formed a massive golden beam that fired directly through the peeled back dark layers and straight to the spark revealed within. There was an explosion there and then a ball of golden energy formed around the spark, forcing the darkness back away from it even farther.

Basara had been flying around playing his music. Now he hovered directly over Ultimecia. A horse-sized Pit Bull dog ran/flew in to where the spark was. He crouched protectively over the spark, and he was surrounded by the golden sphere. Basara flew in there and another force field formed from his music. His music was also sending healing energy into the spark. Selene threw in beams of moonlight that wrapped around the outside of Basara's shield. Pixie's vines surrounded that. I could not see inside at all any more. I couldn't see the dog or Basara or the spark. Clearly the spark was as protected as it would ever be. Now it was time to send Ultimecia a message. Everyone who was able started firing massive energy attacks directly at the protected spark. The energy blasted around it and then seemed to disappear. The pillar of energy going into the sky looked different, though. It was pulsing with more colors of light. My Q had disappeared, too. I sent Battery, Damage, Inc., and Crush 'Em into the array of attacks. This went on for a short time before the pillar of energy into the sky finally flickered and went out.

All of the attacks had incinerated all of the layers of darkness around Scarlett. The orb of protection around the spark sunk gently to the ground. The vines now peeled back. Then the barrier of moonlight vanished. Then Basara's shield went down. And the huge dog got up and walked away. There was a woman curled up on the ground in a fetal position. She was very pale. She wasn't moving. I went over to her. Basara was also looking at her. I could see she was barely breathing. I wondered if she would be ok. She no longer looked evil like Ultimecia. She had long black hair. She was naked. She was clutching onto something. I looked to see what it was but she was holding it too tightly. I didn't want to take it from her by force.

Q appeared. "That bitch had herself a nice crack in the barrier of her prison," Q said, "She won't be using that one again…" He looked down at Scarlett. "She's going to need some recuperation," Q said, "Ultimecia's energy was in her for far too long. Of course any time is far too long… Actually, everyone here should go back to the moon for a healing session. All of you were exposed to her energy. I'll take Scarlett to the Glen of Healing where she can be surrounded by healing energy full time." He snapped his fingers and Scarlett was clothed in a red dress. He gently lifted her into his arms. Then they disappeared.

I looked around at everyone. "Is everyone ok?" I asked. I got a lot of affirmatives. I focused on Through the Never and on getting back to the biodome. We went through the portal. We were in the glen now.

"Warning!" the security system said, "Energy contamination detected! Initiating decontamination procedure! Prepare for positive energy flush!" The entire area was bathed in golden and blue energies before we could even start our healing spells. When we added our healing spells the energy became even more intense. I focused on sending some to Morrigan. A beam of energy fired into the sky. The intense healing was so relaxing that I completely lost lucidity and then I woke.

Note: This entire dream was non-lucid in spite of it being extremely weird!

I was in a beautiful forest glen. I looked around to see where I was. There was a pond with colorful fish swimming around in it. I didn't recognize the location. I started walking around. I stepped in a hole and fell on my face with a curse. I pulled my foot from the hole and sat up on the ground. I turned and looked at the hole. It was a foot in diameter! How in the world could I have missed such a huge hole? I cursed at myself as I pulled myself to my feet to walk away. I walked a bit farther and then heard something behind me. I turned to look. The hole was bigger now. About three feet in diameter. Woah… It had grown again. I couldn't see a bottom to the hole now. I wondered where it had come from. I didn't sense any danger within the hole. Just a possible adventure. I wondered how I could get down there without making myself go splat. I looked around for a vine or something to climb. I wasn't finding anything. I found that frustrating. I thought I saw something a bit higher in a tree. I backed away from the tree to see it better… and I backed right into the hole!

I was falling into darkness. I was wishing I could fly. I was anticipating a rather hard impact at the bottom of the hole… but the bottom of the hole never seemed to come. Finally I saw the bottom rushing up at me… slowing… slowing… stopped… I was now hovering just inches over the bottom of the hole. I was also in a passage. I looked around the passage. It stretched off to my left and right. I wondered what I was supposed to do now. I fell the final few inches to the ground. The dirt was soft and it didn't hurt at all. I got up. The passage was tall enough for me to stand up in. I looked back up the hole I had fallen through. I could see a faint point of light up there. No way to get back up. So I might as well check out one of the passages. I still didn't sense any danger. I headed down the passage to my right.

The passage seemed to go on forever. I somehow didn't question where the light was coming from. Even with no visible sources of light I could see just fine. Being underground should've rendered me virtually blind. I finally came to an exit from the passage. It was on the vertical face of a cliff. The cliff went straight up and straight down from where I was. I looked up. Nothing visible but blue sky. I looked down… Nothing visible but blue sky… WTF? I tried to crawl a bit farther out so I could see better. I was making sure I didn't lose my footing on the passage floor… and I fell… onto the face of the cliff?! The face of the cliff was now as the ground… Uh… that was weird. I wasn't sure what to think of that. I felt really disoriented. I was walking on the face of the cliff… but it felt like the ground. I saw a bird flying over my head. I wasn't even sure if it was over me or beside me. That's how disoriented I was. I started feeling like I would fall away from the face of the cliff. I got down on my hands and knees because I felt more stable. I looked back at the passage into the cliff. The hole was still there. There was a white rabbit peeking out of the hole. I would have sworn the rabbit was laughing at me.

"Laugh it up, Thumper!" I yelled at the rabbit. The rabbit laughed harder than ever. I found the laughing rabbit slightly irritating. I wanted to get to the rabbit and pull a Gibbs (a playful smack on the back of the head) on it. I crawled towards the rabbit. The rabbit was no longer laughing. Now it seemed to be urging me on. I still felt like I might fall off of the cliff face. I felt like Spiderman, but I felt like I was about to lose my powers. The rabbit was still urging me on. I no longer wanted to pull a Gibbs on the rabbit. I was almost to the rabbit. It was hopping happily. I was almost to the hole when I actually did fall off the face of the cliff and into the air. I was falling 'down' away from the cliff face which actually made it feel more like I was falling sideways. This was way too disorienting. I woke up.

Thanks for visiting me in Neverwonderland! Heehee. I told you I might be a rabbit.

I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on and the goal of picking up both Allison and MoSh before heading into a world Q had told me about that is similar to a Fallout III scenario. I fell asleep with this goal in mind. The images on the inside of my eyelids took form as I slipped into a WILD…

I was in a strange place. I looked around to see where I was. It was a fairly normal looking neighborhood… all except for one house which was inexplicably shrouded in darkness and creepiness. My attention was caught by that house. I headed over towards it. It looked sooooo out of place. Dark clouds and lightning around it while the rest of the neighborhood was sunny and warm. Someone was walking out of it at a leisurely pace. That seemed odd considering the creepiness factor of the house. That someone was a man and he came over to me. He said for me not to waste my money. The haunted house wasn't impressive. I commented that they had sure gone to a lot of trouble to make the outside look creepy. He said it was all on the outside, nothing cool inside. I looked at the man I was talking to and a name popped into my mind. He was turning to walk away.

"MoSh?" I asked him.

He stopped and looked at me. "Yeah," he said as he looked at me closely.

"You're dreaming," I said, "Do a reality check. It's me, Raven!" I didn't notice what he did for a reality check or if he did one at all. "Allison wants to come. Let's go get her."

"Sure," MoSh said.

I opened a portal, focusing on getting to Allison. MoSh followed me through the portal. On the other side we were in a small park. Allison was on a bench playing on her laptop. Jen was there looking irritated. She told Allison she wanted to go. Allison said in just a minute… she was about to level up. Jen walked away in an annoyed huff. I looked back at MoSh. I wondered if he was the right MoSh. I focused on calling Q. Q appeared and asked what was up. I asked him if I had the right MoSh. He looked at MoSh for a bit. Another Q appeared. My Q spoke to the second Q for a bit and then came back and said we were in the presence of the MoSh that I have spoken to on Skype. I said that was good. I went over to Allison. She was playing Fallout III… or something similar. She was using magic spells in it. That wasn't normal.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked her.

"Not now, Jen," she said irritatedly, "I'm in the middle of a fight here!"

"I'm not Jen," I said, "And I thought we were going to a far more realistic version of that game…"

Allison looked up at me… and her character died.

"You're dreaming," I said, "Do a reality check…"

While Allison was doing a reality check I looked around for MoSh. He'd wandered off a bit and was looking at a puppy hiding in the bushes. He pointed at the puppy and it disappeared. He came back and said the puppy was a DC. I said the DC was most likely of Allison's creation. Jen came back and was still annoyed. MoSh pointed at her. She disappeared. He said she was another DC. I said if Allison was done playing video games and MoSh was done playing with Allison's DC's maybe we could go. They both agreed. As if he knew he was needed, Q came over to us. He snapped his fingers and the scene around us changed…

We were in a rundown town. There were a lot of trashed houses along a cracked up street. The houses were in various states of disrepair ranging from just a couple of broken windows and needing a paint job to a pile of rubble. There was a large make-shift structure at the end of the road we were on. It looked like it was put together from salvaged garbage. There were armed guards outside a large gate in the wall. Razor wire on top of the wall. The armed guards spotted us and came out. There were five of them. They had guns aimed at us. One of them, a particularly large and ugly man, came forward, making himself appear to be the leader.

"Buying or selling?" he asked, "I don't see any merchandise, so can I assume you're buying?"

"We want the slaves," Allison said.

"We got all types of slaves for the right price," the man said, "Strong ones, smart ones, pretty ones (looked at MoSh), handsome ones (looked at Allison and me), all able bodied and yours for the right price."

"How about you hand them all over?" I said.

"We're talking a lot of coin for that," the man said.

"You hand them all over," I said, "and in exchange you get to live."

"Where's the fun in that?" Allison asked.

The man laughed. He did something to something in his pocket. The gate opened and a bunch more people came out, all of them heavily armed.

"You wanna repeat that threat?" he asked with a laugh.

"There's more of them," MoSh said, "Good. I'd thought this was going to turn out to be boring."

"Kill the fools," the man said as he pointed his gun at Allison.

Q telepathically reminded me to remind MoSh to change into his Naga form. I whispered in MoSh's ear, "Change into a Naga… that should freak them out! Say, 'I am Naga' and change."

He looked at me odd for a bit and then seemed to remember. "I am Naga," he said.

"You're what?" the man said, momentarily distracted from shooting by such a strange statement. He looked over at MoSh just in time to see him turn into a large winged serpent. Now the gun fell from his hand and his jaw hung open far enough for a blowfly to fly inside. (A blowfly is a mutant fly from Fallout III about the size of a rabbit.) "What the FUCK?"

The huge serpent flew forward, slithering through the air and grabbed the stunned man, biting him completely in half and throwing the body aside. The other slavers started firing their weapons at the giant snake. Their gunfire seemed to bounce right off MoSh's armor-like skin.

Q spoke to me telepathically again. He told me to do the Queen of Night if I wanted to learn to control it better. I heard a commotion next to me on my right this time. MoSh had been on my left. I looked and saw Allison was gone… there was a huge werewolf in her place… with huge claws… and a double barreled combat shotgun. Two slavers were attacking her. She sliced one open with her claws and unloaded a shotgun blast right at the other one's balls… and a second at his head to silence his screaming. Their gunfire also didn't penetrate her thick werewolf skin. They must've forgotten their silver bullets! Q repeated to me to use the Queen of Night… just for control practice. I said no, I might not control it and she might kill the slaves. He said no, she wouldn't. Because it is not a separate entity… it's just another part of me… and I wouldn't kill the slaves. He said the worst thing that could happen is the Queen of Night form might be a bit more violent with the slavers. No loss there.

After speaking with Q I realized I was alone now. Both MoSh and Allison had left. There was a slaver aiming a machine gun at me.

"Looks like your freak friends have left you all alone," he said. He looked me up and down, licking his lips. "But you might yet have something you can buy your life with…" He obviously wanted to have sex. Gross!

"I am the Queen of Night," I said.

"You ain't the queen of… uh… what the FUCK?"

My licidity slipped to semi-lucidity. I was holding a cat now. A cute little black one. And I had the idea I was dressed as Sorceress Edea from Final Fantasy 8.

"You'll still die like a bitch," he said as he laughed. He open fired his machine gun. All of the bullets bounced off an invisible shield. I could hear myself laughing at him but it didn't sound like me… it was kind of creepy. The cute cat in my arms turned into a large winged panther with me on her back. The slaver emptied his gun and then threw the weapon itself… and then he got cut down by Shadow's claws.

Now I was riding a large winged panther through the sky, throwing bolts of lightning at slavers. The slavers were open firing at anything that moved. They were sometimes hitting each other. What had them in such a panic was the fact there was a giant winged serpent, a werewolf, and some weird witch woman riding a black cat tearing them apart and all three seemed impervious to any of their weapons. Many of them were running for their lives and got cut down before they could escape. I hit a couple of the cowards with lightning bolts. I found that amusing. I found the fact I thought it was amusing to be a bit disturbing. I laughed as I threw a lightning bolt to kill a slave trader who was begging for his life. I found that even more disturbing. But it seemed like I wasn't completely in control. I fought for control. Stop killing people who are begging for their lives! I got a response thought that he would just have gone back into the slave trade business once he had escaped. And he would have taken his frustration out by torturing slaves. That pissed me off and I blasted another group of slavers.

I saw the holding area in the back had been broken open. A bunch of slaves were making a run for it. A giant serpent was covering for them from one side. MoSh flew down and plowed numerous slavers into the ground, blasting more with fire from his mouth. A werewolf was clearing the way in front of the slaves. Allison was cutting and shooting through slavers trying to block the slaves' escape. Slavers were attacking the escaping slaves from the other side. I threw down a wall of lightning to block their attack. The wall of lightning surrounded the attacking slavers and I filled it with fire and heard myself laughing as they burned. Very disturbing. Lightning came from Shadow's eyes and stopped some more attackers from behind the escaping slaves. I saw the slaves reaching the edge of the rundown town. The slavers were all scattering, trying to escape now. There were very few left. I threw lightning and took a few of them down before they could escape. Also disturbing. Why didn't I have control? I was trying to regain complete control and lucidity when everything around me faded to black and I woke.

o.o WOW! you finished the dream I started. in my dream i was leaving a haunted house and you picked me up from there.

when i said i thought it would be boring, that was true. but i'm glad you had such a cool dream with me in it. Congrats on reaching your awareness of queen of night. Hopefully I'll be able to lucidly call upon my naga self and then remember the dream.

I was on a street in Tucson. I was walking down the sidewalk. The Park Place mall was on the far side of the street, off to my left. I was hungry. I was thinking that was ok because there was a McDonald's close by. I had a few bucks… I would be a dollar menuaire. I reached the McDonald's and went inside. There were some other people eating but there weren't any people in line. I ordered a double cheeseburger, a small fries, and a large Coke. I found an empty table and ate. Yum. Greasy and fattening… just perfect. I finished the meal and sat there a bit longer. I was surprised when a little girl came over to me. She was a cute girl. Looked about five years old. Short blonde hair. Bright blue eyes. A beautiful smile. She smiled at me. I smiled back. She giggled and handed me a cookie. It was a doublestuff Oreo. I took the cookie and looked at it. It looked yummy. I thought the girl looked a bit sad at having given it away. She had wanted it, but had wanted to be nice.

"Wait a minute," I said to the girl, "I just ate. I'm not really hungry now. Thank you for the offer, but why don't you keep the cookie?" I handed the cookie back to the girl. "Go ahead. Take it."

The girl took the cookie with a big smile on her face. Her smile made me smile. She giggled and bit into the cookie. A woman came over. Seemed to be the girl's mother.

"Look at her," the woman said, "She's doing better already! Who could say I'm not a fit mother? Who could say that?"

I thought the woman's reaction was a bit odd, but she seemed friendly. I thought she probably had an ex who was making false accusations on her. I got up and threw my trash away before going outside. The location was different. I wondered where I was. The change in scenery was enough to make me go semi-lucid. (Why not fully lucid?! )

It looked like I was in a strange neighborhood now. I didn't know how I'd gotten there. I saw only one other person on the street. The street seemed much too wide for a normal street. I walked down the street towards the person. It was a man. I didn't recognize him. Or at least not fully. He seemed a bit familiar but I couldn't place a name. I didn't like his energy. He was staring at me. He had a condescending look on his face. I didn't like that. Someone who doesn't even know me is standing there thinking he's better than me somehow? I found his attitude annoying. And something about his energy gave me an immediate disliking of him. I tried to push that feeling down, telling myself I shouldn't judge someone without even speaking to them.

"Come to admit you were wrong?" he asked.

That attitude annoyed me even more. "No," I said simply even though I didn't know what he thought I'd done wrong.

"I don't need any of you," he said.

I looked around me. It sounded like he had been talking to more than one person. I was alone except for him. I gave him a strange look. I was hoping my look reflected the confusion I was feeling.

"You want us to all work together," he said, "But I don't need that."

I still didn't see an 'us all' to work together. I wanted to tell him I have no interest in working with him on anything. A Disturbed song came to mind; the one entitled Divide. That should make my point…

"I want to tear a big hole in what is to be, To end all this infatuation with unity, I'm seeking my salvation alone again,
I never needed to be one of you anyway…"

"So then we agree on it," the man said, "Go away."

"Don't wanna be another player losing in this game, I'm trying to impress upon you, We're not the same, My own individuality is so unique, I'm one impressive motherf*@%er, Now, wouldn't you say?"

"You don't impress me!" he said and he attacked me with a sword. I dodged the attack and continued with Disturbed. On every repetition of the word 'divide' I split myself into double…

"Divide (2 of me), divide (4 of me), divide (8 of me), divide (16 of me), You might say that I'm the last man standing now,
And though you try, you'll never find a way to break me, You might say that I'm sick of being lost in the crowd, I hear the sirens but they're never gonna take me!" Each of me hit him with an energy blast at the same time. For some reason I didn't want to hurt him for real… just make it look like it. The energy blasts were mostly light. That actually seemed to piss him off. All 16 of me merged back into one, who was standing behind him. He turned, seeming surprised to see me there.

"I am a little more provocative then you might need, It's your shock and then your horror on which I feed, So can you tell me what exactly does freedom mean, If I'm not free to be as twisted as I wanna be, Don't wanna be another player losing in this game, I'm trying to impress upon you, We're not the same, My psychotic mentality is so unique, I'm one aggressive motherf*@%er, Now, wouldn't you say?"

The man was annoyed. He attacked me again. I did the multiplication thing again…

"Divide (2 of me), divide (4 of me), divide (8 of me), divide (16 of me), You might say that I'm the last man standing now,
And though you try, you'll never find a way to break me, You might say that I'm sick of being lost in the crowd, I hear the sirens but they're never gonna take me!" I hit him with more energy blasts, a bit more powerful than last time before fusing into one person again.

"Why don't you just stay the fuck out of my dreams?" the man demanded.

"You intruded on MY dream!" I responded, losing focus on the song, "Who are you, anyway? I didn't invite you into my dream! If you are a real dreamer, I am telling you I do NOT want to dream with you!" Something about the idea of dreaming about this person repeatedly churned my stomach. "So this will be the last time we see each other on the dream plane. Now get lost!"

"You're the one who needs me," the man said, "I don't need you. So if you want me out, fine!"

"I need you like I need the swine flu!" I said. I didn't want to spend any more time with this guy. I wanted to leave now. Everything around me faded to black as I woke.

Note: The lyrics of 'Divide' are copyright Disturbed, it is a kick-ass song!

Note: This entire dream was non-lucid.

I was in a green meadow. I walked for a ways to see what there was to see. I had the idea I was in Overgaard near the trailer Alicia and I stay in when we go on mini-vacations. I was on a walk. Alicia was back at the trailer sleeping. I thought the weather was too beautiful for that. I walked into the meadow. There was tall grass and pretty flowers all around me. The flowers were pretty purple ones like lavenders. I sniffed them. They smelled beautiful. I briefly thought about snakes but I thought snakes don't like lavenders. I kept walking through the meadow. I saw an interesting shaped rock ahead. I wanted to climb it. I walked more quickly for it… and stepped right in a hole! A big hole! I fell right through it. All I could do was look up at the shrinking circle of sky as I fell down and down…

And I landed in a soft pile of dirt. The dirt poofed all around me, surrounding me with dust. I got a mouth full of dust. I was about to spit it out when… yum! It was chocolate! I had landed in a pile of powdered chocolate! I scooped up more and ate it. Yum! Tasted like chocolate frosting left to dry on the mixing bowl and then flaked off. I ate a bit more and then stood up. There was a passage to the left and right that was tall enough to walk in. I headed down the one to the left. Somehow it seemed I knew where the right one would lead…

I entered a larger area that looked like the exit of the cave. There was a strange animal there. A white rabbit with a long cat-like fluffy tail. The tail looked like Princess' (my fluffy white cat) tail. I snuck up on the animal and reached out to pet the tail. The tail moved and I reflexively grabbed it. The bunny / cat animal flew! It flew out of the cave and into the sky. I held onto the tail to keep from falling. Strong tail. Fortunately it didn't seem to hurt the animal. The animal looked down at me and laughed a bit. I looked down at the landscape below. It was quite beautiful. I had a great view. Holding on to the animal's tail wasn't nearly as hard as I would have thought.

A fairy flew over to us. She looked like Tinkerbell. She said hello to me and called me by a name I didn't recognize so I don't remember. I told her I am Raven. I asked if she could spare some fairy dust so I could fly instead of hitching a ride on the bunny / cat. She said I didn't need it, but sure. She threw some sparkling dust on me. I floated up a bit. Having none of my weight on the bunny / cat's tail I let go and flew. I flew in front of the bunny / cat.

"I hope I didn't hurt your tail," I said, "but thanks for the lift."

The bunny / cat smiled and didn't seem upset. The bunny transformed into Peter Pan! I floated there and as I watched that. He said to follow him and started to fly away. Tinkerbell followed him. I did also. I asked where we were going. He said Never-wonder-land. I asked if he didn't mean Never-never-land. He said no, he meant Never-wonder-land. I followed him and Tinkerbell. There was a large winged serpent flying near us.

"I know him…" I said, more to myself than to anyone.

Peter said that was someone I've never heard of.

"No…" I said as I tried to think, "That's Mush… no… MoSh… MoSh! But what does that mean?" My mind was spinning.

"Something to do with rock and roll," Peter said.

"Rolling rocks?" I questioned. I was going to go over to MoSh and ask him what was going on when I heard Peter yell that the last one face first in the mud slide was an old geezer. Tinkerbell said that was gross. I almost agreed… then a smell met my nose. Chocolate! I flew down right after Peter and slid face-first down the chocolate-mud slide. Chocolate was pouring into my mouth. I didn't seem to think of the fact it was coming off the ground… It was yummy! We hit a pool of water at the bottom that cleaned us up. We flew out over a lagoon. There was a pirate ship in the lagoon. I asked whose ship it was. Peter said it was just Captain Hook's, but he's a loser.

"Ah, crap!" I said, "I was hoping for Captain Jack Sparrow!"

"Maybe next time," Peter said.

All three of us dove into the water and transformed into merpeople. Tinkerbell was now a human sized mermaid. We swam around. Peter had a conversation with a large shark. We continued swimming. There were other mermaids there. They seemed interested in Peter. Peter said something about eating them. They laughed and swam away. Tinkerbell started making out with Peter. The shark was back. He was singing and dancing. I thought that was odd. Peter was laughing his ass off as he watched. The shark got slightly annoyed. The shark put on a tux and came over to me and asked how I had liked the show. It was weird. I said it was interesting. Tinkerbell was trying to make out with Peter again. Peter disappeared… no… he changed into a snail! And then he hid under a rock. Tinkerbell shrank and dragged him out by an eyestalk. Tinkerbell then changed into a mermaid with long brown pigtails. Peter changed from a snail into a merman. The merman didn't look like Peter Pan… but he looked familiar. The two merpeople were making out again.

"Get a room, you guys!" I said. We were all laughing when I woke.

Wow! SOOO COOL, Raven! I love sharing dreams! It's the most amazing experience of my life!

I fell asleep with my light / sound machine on. I remembered that MoSh was wanting to visit my inner world. I remembered that his Q was going to try to bring him, but I thought I could go get him if I needed to. I fell asleep and slipped into a WILD…

I was in a green meadow. There was a house there. I saw Vegeta in the meadow with Altaïr. It looked like they were training. I figured it had only been a matter of time before Vegeta had Altaïr training… Q appeared with a man. He said he had gone to get MoSh. I looked at the man and realized it was MoSh. I wondered which Q I was talking to. The I noticed there were two Q's. Both of them.

MoSh, two Q's, and I went over towards the house. Serena was standing outside watching Vegeta. She looked slightly irritated.

"Seriously…" she said, "Must he personally train everyone who comes through here? Can't Kakarot do some of it?"

Note: Kakarot is a twinner of Vegeta's who comes and goes sometimes. He isn't here as much as Vegeta. He knows a lot of the same techniques as Vegeta, but his power level is a bit lower.

"Hey, Serena," I said.

"Hi, Raven," Serena said. She looked over at MoSh. "It's MoSh, right?"

"Yeah," MoSh said, "How's Sydney doing?"

"As good as can be expected," Serena said, "Better than a lot of kids would be doing. She's inside with the twins. Want to come see her?"

"Sure," MoSh said. He followed Serena into the house. I followed the two of them.

The interior of the home was nice. There was a room where the three girls were playing. It seemed one of the twins had created an energy ball and they were throwing it around. It was solid enough that Sydney could also throw it back even without having had any training in energy control. If she spends much time with Serena and Vegeta she will be controlling energy like a pro in no time.

"Sydney," Serena said.

"I don't have to go, do I?" Sydney asked hesitantly. She was the girl with short curly blonde hair. A cute girl. The twins had longer hair and looked almost identical. Also cute.

"No, honey," Serena said soothingly, "You don't have to go anywhere until you're ready."

"I don't wanna go," Sydney said.

"You have a visitor to see you," Serena said, "Remember MoSh?"

"Yeah!" Sydney said, brightening. She looked over at MoSh and smiled.

"I'll go see how the twins are doing," Serena said to MoSh, "You two can have some time." Serena went to the other side of the room to where the twins were playing.

Q entered the room. He was my Q. He came over to me. "Can you come with me for a bit?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. I followed Q out of the house. We crossed the meadow and went through the trees. There was another house not far away. Q knocked on the door. Someone inside said to go away. Q said we were there to help. The answer was that he didn't need help. Q said he couldn't stay awake forever. The man inside asked if we couldn't just send him home. Q said sure, if he wanted to be dealing with the dream demon on his own. Q said the dream demon doesn't care where he is, it will follow. Q told the man to stop being so thick headed and come out. Q then looked at me and told me to stop dressing like an Assassin… that isn't helpful. I hadn't realized I was dressed as an Assassin… He snapped his fingers. I was now in normal street clothes. The door didn't open. Q said Vegeta would come over and drag him out pretty soon. He told the man he should go see Vegeta first. He said no one stays here for more than a couple of days without getting a course in Ranma Saotome Martial Arts from Vegeta… and Vegeta doesn't take 'no' for an answer.

Q sighed. "Don't think too badly of him," Q said to me, "Things haven't been easy for him."

"I didn't say anything," I said.

"It was Vegeta saying he is the most pathetic thing he has ever seen," Q said, "Vegeta also vowed that would end as soon as he got his hands on the wuss."

"Compared to Vegeta it is pathetic," I said, "But not everyone can be Vegeta…"

"That is so true," Q said before he disappeared. I headed back towards Serena and Vegeta's house. I saw MoSh, Serena, the twins, Sydney, Altaïr, and Vegeta in the meadow. I saw a cute animal. A squirrel. I watched the squirrel for a bit. The weather was beautiful. I lost some of my ludicity…

I got lost in thought watching the squirrel. I then turned to watch the family in the meadow. Serena, Vegeta, their three kids, two other men… one of the men was dressed as an Assassin… He looked familiar. Altaïr? I thought the other person was MoSh… I was watching them and thinking it would be nice if I could be included in a group when I felt someone behind me. I turned to see a man starting to leave.

"Hi," I said, "You don't have to go."

"Hi, Raven," he said, "Q said I should come see Vegeta, but now isn't a good time."

I looked back at the family. Vegeta was talking to MoSh. "He's not training, so now is a fine time," I said.

"No," the man said, "He has company."

"That's his wife, his kids, MoSh, and a student," I said, "He won't mind you showing up. Come on. We can go together. I know Vegeta's glare can be a bit intimidating…"

"Vegeta has been training Altaïr?" the man asked, not seeming to like that.

"Yeah," I said, "Vegeta trains anyone who stays here for very long."

"I'll come back later," the man said. He started to leave again. I grabbed his arm. I was thinking he was familiar… I should know who he was…

"I know you…" I said, "I can't remember…"

The man looked surprised. "You don't remember me?" he asked.

"I'll get it…" I said, "Mark… no… Markus… not quite… Markuas… no, that's Allison's DDO character… Malik… no, he's a character on YuGiOh… wait… I'll get it… Malkus… is that it? That's it, isn't it?"

I was sure his name was Malkus. He was looking at me strangely. "I lose lucidity sometimes," I said, "So maybe I should do more reality checks…" I pinched my nose and kept breathing. "I'm dreaming!"


Malkus was looking at me really strangely now. I looked back at the family and noticed MoSh was gone. Vegeta was looking up. Vegeta didn't look impressed.

"Come on," I said to Malkus, "Q said Vegeta wants to talk to you."

"Later," he said, "After Altaïr is gone."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Vegeta is out there and you're worried about Altaïr?" I asked, "Are you kidding me? Vegeta could very well be the most powerful man in the reality and you're worried about an Assassin who has trained with Vegeta for a total of three days? No one gets that strong that fast! Vegeta didn't even do that! And Altaïr will never be as powerful as Vegeta. Not even close!"

Malkus looked a bit embarrassed. "Come on," I said to him, "No one crosses Vegeta. Best not keep him waiting." I took hold of Malkus' arm and started to lead him into the open. I stopped short when I found we were face to face with a giant winged cobra serpent with its hood spread and hissing. I was briefly startled, but Malkus tried to run for it. I held on to his arm tighter.

"Don't worry about that," I said to him, "That's just MoSh. Showing off." I increased my size enough that I could pull a nice Gibbs (playful smack to the back of the head) on MoSh. The snake telepathically asked what was wrong with Malkus. I said not everyone is used to turning around and finding themselves face-to-face with a giant snake. Especially one on edge from lack of sleep and dream demons. The snake gave me a telepathic "Sorry…" and then flew off. Dream demons!

"Malkus," I said, "You have dream demons. I need to get Q back here. I need a dream gem so I can go into your dreams and kick their asses. You know, Vegeta could help you with some skills that could transfer to the dream state. They would probably work even better in the dream state… so maybe we should go see Vegeta first… shit… I'm getting disoriented… I think I'm going to wake up…"

I looked at the family. Vegeta was talking to the winged serpent form of MoSh. Altaïr was looking over at me. I felt Malkus pull away from me. I saw him disappear into the trees.

"Wait!" I called, "Vegeta doesn't bite! Not much, at least! And only when Serena wants him to!"

I turned back towards the meadow. Altaïr was now right in front of me. So that was why Malkus had left. His Altaïraphobia… Altaïr said Q had told him he was going with me to free some slaves. I said the only place I thought I was going was to wake up. I felt a bit dizzy and fell right into Altaïr's arms. I was in his arms when I woke.

I was in a green meadow. I looked around to see where I was. I thought the place looked familiar but I couldn't quite place where I was. I saw a house in the meadow. I headed for it. Q appeared in front of me before I got there.

"In case my appearance doesn't give it away," Q said, "You're dreaming. Do a reality check. But be quick about it. Everyone else is ready to go.

"Everyone else?" I asked, "And go where?"

"Everyone else includes Nomad, MoSh, Spike, and Altaïr," Q said, "And the where would be a large slaver camp located a few miles south of Megaton."

"Megaton?" I asked.

"A Fallout 3 dimension," Q said, "It's not really called Megaton, of course, but that's close enough for what we're doing here. If you'd hurry up and do that reality check you'd be a lot clearer on these things."

I looked around. Q had said to do a reality check. I would do that. I tried to fly and I succeeded. I was dreaming. "This is a dream!" I said to Q.


"Ok," Q said, "So now you're ready." He turned towards the house. "It's time to get moving!" he called.

Some people came out of the house. MoSh was holding a little girl in his arms. She looked to be about 5 years old. He handed the girl to Serena. Twin girls chased each other across the meadow. MoSh came over to me now. There was a man who appeared to be part jaguar. Sydney, the little girl in Serena's arms, was reaching out and grabbing his fur. He came over to me, as well. Altaïr was off to the side with Vegeta. He also came over to me. Spike materialized from nowhere.

"Hello, luv," he said as he kissed me. Q said it was time to go. He said the slaver camp was directly north of where he was sending us, so finding it shouldn't be a problem. We would come across a couple of outposts with guards. Best to take them out quietly or the ones in the main camp might raise an alarm and start killing slaves just so they can't be rescued. Q said they are assholes like that. Better dead slaves than rescued slaves. He snapped his fingers and the scene around us changed…

It was nighttime in a rocky wasteland and I was standing between Spike and Altaïr with Nomad in front of me and MoSh behind me. We were on a road. We headed down the road. We followed the road but stayed a bit off the road so we wouldn't be seen. Large rocks and a few dead trees provided cover. There were two guard posts up the road a bit. There were two armed guards in each of two booths. We had gotten quite close to the booths but wouldn't get any closer. Spike and Altaïr disappeared into the night. I watched the guard houses. Two guards went down. Then before their partners had even had a chance to sound an alert they were dead, too. Spike came from the far guard house and Altaïr came out from the closer one. The slaver camp wouldn't be getting an advance warning this night.

We continued up the road, staying concealed as best as we could. We soon reached a good lookout point where we could see the slaver camp down below. Talk about guards! There were patrolling guards all around the encampment. It looked like a military operation. In the middle of the camp was a large grid on the ground. A metal grating. I had the idea there were slaves locked up in there. They were the ones we were there to rescue. The slavers all over the camp were the ones we were there to kill. Seemed pretty straight forward. No better time to start than the present…

"Who's up there?" a slaver called from the base of our lookout hill, "Come out! Show yourself!" There were two slavers on patrol looking up at us.

"He asked for it," MoSh said, "I am Naga…" and he changed into a giant winged serpent. He did what the slaver had asked. He came out and showed himself now.

"Holy fucking shit!" one of the slavers yelled as he turned and ran.

"What the fuck is that thing?" the other slaver yelled as he fired his gun ineffectively at MoSh. MoSh crushed the slaver between his fangs and threw the body aside. He then flew low over the ground and smashed through the outer wall surrounding the encampment. Everyone was shooting at him.

"MoSh isn't going to have all the fun!" Nomad said and he changed form into some kind of dark knight riding a huge jaguar and they charged at the broken wall.

"Don't forget your alternate form, luv," Spike said, "The only way to control it better is to use it… and I have to say it kind of turns me on…"

I could feel myself turning a bit red. Spike took to flying over the encampment, throwing energy blasts at the slavers who had been freaking out since their first sighting of MoSh. I looked around to see where Altaïr was. He was gone. I wondered where he had gone off to. I thought maybe there were slavers finding themselves dead when they thought they were out of the line of fire… It didn't really matter right now. Spike had seemed to think I should use the Queen of Night… I was a bit hesitant, but I finally made the transformation. "I am the Queen of Night."


I was now sitting on a large black winged panther. The cat took flight and dove down over the slaver camp. Everything was in chaos down there. I was also having problems focusing on things. I wondered if I was going to wake up already. It seemed too soon. I threw lightning bolts at slavers who were firing at me. And some of the slavers were firing at Spike, MoSh, and Nomad. I didn't see Altaïr. Somehow the slaves were getting free. Nomad, MoSh, and Spike were covering for them as they made for the hole MoSh had left in the wall. I spotted a sniper getting ready to pick off escaping slaves. I was going to hit him with a bolt of lightning but he died first. Now Altaïr was on the roof where the sniper had been. He jumped down to the level below and took out a sniper I hadn't even seen yet.

There were slavers attacking the escaping slaves. A wave of fire pushed them back. Some were instantly incinerated, others ran around in a blind panic as they were engulfed in flames. Those ones succeeded only in setting some buildings and some other slavers on fire. I found the slavers running around panicking and on fire to be amusing. I cursed at myself for being so sick… It seemed like the action was taking place at a distance now. Slaves running, slavers attacking. I threw a lot of lighting at the slavers. I was vaguely aware of a giant serpent breathing fire. I was vaguely aware of a dark knight throwing spears of energy. I was vaguely aware of a giant version of Spike with huge bat wings.

The slaves were making it out through the hole MoSh had created in the wall. There were slavers trying to block the escape. Other slavers were running for their lives. I threw lightning bolts at several of the attacking slavers. I chased down a few of the escaping ones and killed them, too. I have a particularly clear memory of finding a pair of slavers trying to hide in a cave. They were begging for their lives. I remember setting fire on the cave entrance and watching them burn to death. And finding that very amusing… which I found very disturbing.

Most of the slavers were now dead. I landed and got off Shadow. Shadow pounced on a slaver and tore him apart. I threw a lightning bolt at a slaver who was trying to attack some of the slaves. The last of the slaves had gotten out of the encampment. A slaver was aiming to shoot the escaping slaves from behind with a rocket launcher. I aimed a bolt of lightning at him. He fell over dead. There was another slaver behind him. He seemed to be the last one there. And now he would burn. The slaver was giving up. He said not to shoot. He somehow knew my name… Raven… well, that didn't matter. Who had told this slaver my name? That didn't matter. He would be dead now. I was about to throw the blast of fire when someone got in the way.

"Raven!" he said, "What are you doing? That's Altaïr!"

I tried to clear my head more. The person in front of me was Spike. He was looking like he was worried about something. I felt like I wanted to throw the blast of fire at Spike now… but that couldn’t be right… I had to get out of there. Now. I took to flight into the sky and headed away from the ruined encampment as fast as I could. I spotted something in the distance. It was a small group of what appeared to be super mutants from Fallout 3. I powered up a powerful blast of lightning and fire and threw it at the super mutants. There was a large explosion. Pieces of the super mutants went flying in all direction in an orgy of blood and violence. Why had I wanted to kill Altaïr? Why had I wanted to kill Spike? I had to find more enemies. I found a group of raiders camped out beside a river and gave them some of the same. I landed near the ruined raider camp. I thought I was going to be sick. Everything around me faded to black as I woke.

Note: I was really upset this night. I had just finished recalling and typing the second dream from last night where I almost attacked Spike and Altaïr… and it seemed to me it had come way too close. Spike has been training for quite some time and now has enough power he could've blocked the attack, but Altaïr just got here… he couldn't have blocked it. I didn't really feel like dreaming. I didn't use my light / sound machine to induce a WILD. I was so upset that I forgot one of my dream goals. Sorry, MoSh… But it didn't keep me from dreaming at all…

I was in the trees near a green meadow. I looked around. I was not lucid. The place seemed familiar. I watched a playful squirrel. The squirrel was also a brave one. It came over to me and sat on my foot. I wished I had food for it. Maybe if I did it would let me pet it. The squirrel climbed up my robe. I noticed I was wearing white robes… I was dressed like an Assassin. I wondered what had possessed me to wear my Assassin costume today. It made no sense. The squirrel was on my left arm now. It looked up at me with sad eyes. I stroked the squirrel. The squirrel seemed to like it. I found I had a piece of bread in my pocket. I gave it to the squirrel. The squirrel happily ate it and scampered off. It waved at me from a tree. Sooooo cute!

I looked out over the meadow. There was a house in the middle of it. There were two people in the meadow. One of them was Vegeta. He was training someone. I looked and saw that someone was Altaïr. I faded farther back into the trees. I didn't want Altaïr to see me. I wasn't entirely sure why but it seemed urgent that I not be seen by Altaïr. I saw Vegeta throw a ball of energy at Altaïr. Altaïr deflected it. I thought I heard the song Whiplash by Metallica. Vegeta looked over and saw me. He waved at me to come over. I wondered what Vegeta wanted. I figured I would hook up with him later… when he wasn't in the middle of training Altaïr. I thought it important that I not be near Altaïr. I backed into the trees farther and hurried away.

"Raven!" Vegeta called from behind me, "Come back here! This is important!"

"Later!" I called back to Vegeta, "I… uh… I have a dream demon to fight!" I didn't even know if that was true but it sounded good. I hurried through the forest and reached a house. The door was locked. I used a Harry Potter spell to unlock it… alohamora… and then I went in and shut the door behind me. (I didn't even stop to wonder why a Harry Potter spell worked…) I also re-locked the door. I sat down in front of the door. I felt ill. I looked around the house I'd just broken into. The front room was empty but I heard someone in the back room moving around. I went back there to see who was there. I wanted to apologize for breaking in and also ask if they minded if I hid out there for a bit until Vegeta stopped looking for me. There was a man in the bedroom. He was standing there looking at me. He was pale and had dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept for a while… a long while. He seemed a bit insane… on edge for some reason. I had been intending to apologize for breaking in, but instead…

"Hey," I said, "Are you ok? I mean, you look like shit… Are you sick?"

"Raven…" he said, "There's no one else here with you, is there?"

"No one like who?" I asked.

"Like… Altaïr," he said.

"No," I said, "He's not." I looked out the window. It seemed really odd that I was actually trying to avoid Vegeta right now… in a house with someone who thought Altaïr was coming… Maybe a reality check was in order… I levitated off the ground. I was dreaming. I became lucid…

"Is he coming?" the man asked.

"Who?" I asked as I looked over at the man… Malkus… My mind was getting a bit clearer.

"Altaïr!" Malkus said, sounding impatient.

"I don't think so…" I said, "I'm just checking for Vegeta. I'm avoiding Vegeta right now." I focused on the image of a cloak over me to conceal my energy. Vegeta can follow energy… "I don't see either of them."

"Did you come here about the nightmares?" the Malkus asked.

"A dream demon?" I asked, surprised at the coincidence I may have told Vegeta the truth when I'd said I had to fight a dream demon, "Uh… yeah. I can do something about a dream demon if you have one… I just need to get into your dream…" I remembered that a dream goal had been to get rid of Malkus' dream demon. But wasn't Nomad coming with me? Probably not. I was thinking I shouldn't bother him with it. Was someone else coming? I thought so… MoSh… I was thinking that hadn't been MoSh's main goal, though… wasn't I supposed to help MoSh with a different dream goal? I couldn't remember…

The man took a crystal pendant from a table. "This is what Q gave you last time. I wouldn't say anything… but I just can't stay awake any longer…"

"You should say something," I said, "Don't just put up with an annoying dream demon when someone can do something about it for you."

"So… you will stop the nightmares?" Malkus asked, not seeming to believe me.

"Yeah," I said, "Give me the dream gem. And try to stop being so paranoid. No one here wants to hurt you."

"Just Altaïr," Malkus said.

I let out a long sigh. "He won't be sticking around," I said, "Not now, I'm sure. Not now that he's seen what is inside of me… Now… about the dream demon… I'll take the dream gem, you just have to sleep. Ok?"

"What's inside of you?" Malkus questioned.

"It doesn't matter," I said, "It's something you will never see. No one should see that." I didn't want to talk about that. "Just lie down and try to sleep." I took the dream gem and put it on. There were two beds in the bedroom. Malkus lied down on one of them and I lied down on the other one. I wondered if he would have problems getting to sleep. Apparently his exhaustion won out, however, and he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. I lied down on the other bed and fell asleep within the dream…

I was in a forest of some kind. It was sure pretty there. I wondered what kind of a nightmare could take place somewhere so beautiful. Whatever it was I was sure it would happen soon. And not everything bad has to happen in a dark scary somewhere. I walked down a path for a bit. I heard movement ahead of me. A man came onto the path and skidded to a stop. It looked like something was after him. It was Malkus. He looked at me and turned to run the other way. I grabbed his left arm.

"Malkus!" I said loudly to him, "Wait! It's me, Raven! This is a dream! Do a reality check!"

Malkus stopped pulling and looked right at me. He looked like hell. Someone had seriously beaten the shit out of him. He was actually missing his right ear.

"Who did this to you?" I asked Malkus, indicating the fact he'd had the shit beat out of him and was missing an ear.

"He did!" Malkus said as he pointed behind me. I turned to look and saw Altaïr behind me. Damn! I had been trying to avoid Altaïr. Altaïr didn't seem very interested in me at all. He was glaring at Malkus with an evil grin on his face. I was between Altaïr and Malkus.

"What is going on?" I asked Altaïr.

"Just taking out the trash," Altaïr said.

"Damn it!" I said, momentarily forgetting I was in Malkus' dream, "It's ME you should be mad at! I'm the one who was going to blast you into Oblivion! He didn't do anything, so leave him alone!"

Altaïr looked a bit perplexed. Then in a blur he threw five knives. They all somehow went around me and hit Malkus. One in each arm, one in each thigh, and one right in his left eye. I was pissed. I figured Altaïr had every right to be mad at me, but it was pissing me off that he was taking it out on someone else. I shoved Altaïr back and hit him with a bolt of lightning. Not a real powerful one, I didn't want to seriously hurt him. I just wanted him to back off. He gave me an evil smirk and then disappeared. Disappeared?! Altaïr can't teleport! Or at least I didn't think he could. I heard Malkus call out behind me. I turned and saw Altaïr was on top of him now. He ripped the knife from Malkus' shoulder… somehow the tip of the knife had expanded inside Malkus' arm. When he tore it out he ripped the wound much larger. He did that with the knife in Malkus' other arm. I went to tackle Altaïr off of Malkus… and I went right through Altaïr as if he was a ghost! I looked back and saw Altaïr was pulling at the knife in Malkus' eye. It ripped out with a horrible sound of splintering bone, a maniacal laugh from Altaïr, and a scream of pain from Malkus. The habit I have IRL transferred to the dream… I reached up to grasp my pendant to get some positive energy… and I found the dream gem… I remembered this wasn't really Altaïr… it was a dream demon! That's why he had the powers he had! Now I knew what I had to do.

"Are you ready to die?" the dream demon Altaïr was yelling in Malkus' face to be heard over Malkus' cries of pain, "The beg for it! BEG to die!"

I focused on the song Dream Warriors by Dokken. The song played through the forest. Now THAT got the dream demon Altaïr's attention. He got up off of Malkus and glared at me. He kicked Malkus one more time in the face and came towards me. I was really pissed at the dream demon now. With Dream Warriors still playing to drain the dream demon's energy I used the song Enter Sandman by Metallica. A spiral of white energy blasted from the ground and into the sky. A spiral of dark energy blasted from the sky to the ground… and where they met, which was right on top of the dream demon, there was a huge explosion. In case that wasn't enough I added a massive bolt of lightning from Battery by Metallica. The huge explosion had white lighting flashing around inside it. It looked really cool.

When the explosion finally cleared there was no trace of the dream demon… but wait! There was. There was a pathetic little slug type thing. It was about the size of a cat. It was squirming down into the ground. I formed my Witchblade into a sword and impaled the slug. I sent white lightning through the sword and incinerated what was left of the dream demon. Now all that remained was ashes.

I went over to Malkus. He was alive, but in what must have been an unimaginable amount of pain. I told him to wake up… he would not have been hurt in his real body. He looked at me with his one remaining eye. Most of the right side of his face was missing, ripped up and bloody.

"It hurts…" Malkus somehow managed to croak with only half a face, "Just make it stop…"

"Wake up," I told him, "It's your dream. You can end it."

"I want it to stop," he croaked as he laid his head back and closed his one eye. Everything around me faded to black and I woke in the bed next to Malkus' bed…

I sat up and looked at Malkus in bed. He was awake now. He sat up quickly and reached his hand up to the right side of his face. There was no injury there. He looked stressed and sleep deprived but beyond that he was not harmed. He looked over at me. He asked if that would really end it. I said it should. Try to get some sleep. If somehow that didn't do it, I would come back and kick the dream demon's ass again. As many times as it took. Malkus said he didn't think he'd be able to sleep. He lied back down, however, and was apparently so exhausted that he fell right back to sleep. This time his sleep seemed peaceful. Everything around me faded to black as I woke…

11/15/09 Sunday

I fell asleep with my light sound machine on and several dream goals in mind. My first goal was to get MoSh. He wanted to visit Sydney and then we were heading off to find an incarnation of Johann Sebastian Bach. Since he spoke with one last night, the ideal would be to find the same one. I slipped into a WILD with that in mind…

I was in the biodome. There were birds singing everywhere. I wondered why I hadn't gone to find MoSh. I looked around and saw I wasn't alone. Nomad was there. He was part human and part jaguar. MoSh was there. He was in his human form. So I had gone to MoSh… just not where I had expected him. Nomad and I exchanged healing spells. Golden energy filled the area, flowing through all three of us. After that I used Through the Never and focused on getting back to my inner world. A portal opened and we all went through it…

On the other side we were in a meadow. I saw a house in the meadow. There was a forest near by. Nomad looked around for a bit and then walked towards Vegeta. I saw Vegeta was with Altaïr. I wanted to avoid being seen by Altaïr. Vegeta looked over and saw me. He waved at me. I turned to walk away. To avoid Altaïr. Vegeta called out my name.

"Raven! Get over here!" Vegeta yelled, "Nomad! MoSh! Bring Raven over here!" Nomad went to take hold of my arm.

"I can walk on my own," I told him as I pulled my arm away. I hoped he wouldn't take it the wrong way. I wasn't annoyed at him, I just didn't want to see Altaïr… I wasn't sure what would happen since the last time I had seen him I had been Queen of Night and had wanted to kill him as well as Spike…

MoSh was heading over to the house where Serena was waving at him. Nomad and I went over to Vegeta and Altaïr.

"So," Vegeta said to Nomad, "You're interested in some training. Let's take a look at your power level… ok... we can go over here and talk about where we will start."

"Awesome," Nomad said as he and Vegeta walked off leaving me alone with Altaïr. I hadn't even looked at him yet. The only word in my mind right now was 'awkward…'

"Looks like Nomad got me a break from training," Altaïr said as he watched Nomad and Vegeta walk off, "He really takes his training seriously!"

"Yeah," I said, "That's Vegeta for you…" I was feeling awkward still. I decided the best thing to do was to blurt it out. So I rambled off a fast sentence… "Look, I'm sorry I almost attacked you, and it won't happen again, but I understand completely if you want to stay as far away from me as possible because now you've see that the only thing really inside of me is evil and dark and all of the things I do are just a façade to keep people from realizing what I really am is…"

"Hey!" Altaïr interrupted me now, "That's enough of that! I'm not going to…"

"Be associated with the likes of me," I interrupted Altaïr, "Ok. I'll go now." I turned to leave. Altaïr grabbed my arm before I could go anywhere.

"That's not what I was going to say!" Altaïr said, "Why do you think I'd be mad at you? Nothing happened."

"But it could've…" I started…

"It didn't," Altaïr said. He was trying to turn me around to face him. When that didn't work he moved around in front of me, muttered something in which I heard the word stubborn. (Me? Stubborn? Never! Must… keep… straight face… Ok. Maybe a little… or a lot…) "If you want to get into what could've happened," Altaïr continued, "I could've been killed by those shadow Templars if you hadn't showed up with the lightning energy that made them vulnerable to attack. You're trying to harness a new power and that will take time."

Altaïr was directly in front of me. I looked at his face. His eyes. I didn't see any anger there. Maybe a bit of frustration. But he should be mad… I deserved someone to be mad at me… I deserved for him to tell me I was clearly nothing more than a monster hidden in a human body and if I had any humanity left in me I should stay away from everyone I claim to care for before someone really got hurt. But instead of getting mad he pulled me into his arms and hugged me… At which point I cried… which made me feel ashamed of that, too. I couldn't let Altaïr see me cry! Even worse… what if Vegeta saw me cry? What could be a greater sign of weakness than to cry in front of Vegeta? I heard someone coming. I hurriedly wiped my tears on Altaïr's robes before turning around and seeing Nomad and MoSh coming.

"Vegeta took me into a time loop," Nomad said, "We've been training forever!"

"Now we can go see Bach," MoSh said.

A portal opened and Basara came through. He said he was coming. "Unless you two want to be alone," Basara said as he pointed at me. I was still in Altaïr's arms.

"No time for that," Vegeta said, "Altaïr has a training session to finish."

I went over to MoSh. I told him it would probably be best to find the same Bach he already visited. So if he could help me focus the portal, we could open it together.

We opened the portal using Through the Never and went through. On the other side we were inside a building. I could hear a piano playing. The building was pretty dark so I couldn't see much detail. I saw a flickering light at the end of a hall. I headed there. MoSh, Nomad, and Basara were following me. At the end of the hall was a large room. There was a piano in the middle of the room. It was surrounded by candles to provide light. A man was playing the piano. It sounded great. A master pianist. I was getting lost in the music when I was suddenly thrown out by a sour note. Then an expletive. I heard the scratching of a pen on paper echoing in the room, then the playing resumed. I was once again getting carried away in the music. Absolutely beautiful. The music came to an end and now the pianist seemed pleased. We went over to the piano and saw the man at the keyboard. I didn't recognize him. But somehow I knew I was face to face with Johann Sebastian Bach. I was speechless.

"You!" Bach said as he saw MoSh. (He was speaking in German, but I was understanding him… a while back I think Q gave me a universal translator…) Bach said he remembered MoSh from last night. He wanted to know if MoSh had played the piece he had given him. MoSh asked what Bach had said. I gave him the message. He took out some papers from his pocket and unfolded them. He set it down on the piano and started playing his guitar. Basara joined in on his guitar. Bach joined in on the piano. Nomad and I were just listening to the music. I am not familiar with classical music, so I don't know what they were playing, but it sounded awesome. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as I was enjoying listening to it. When the song finished I was clapping. So was Nomad. It had sounded great. MoSh said he thought he was going to wake up. He said he wanted to do that again. Bach seemed to get an idea and then he grabbed a couple of papers from his piano and handed them to MoSh. He also indicated MoSh should share them with Basara. Apparently inspired, he went directly back to the piano, scribbled some musical notes on a paper, and then started playing the piano. I opened a portal to get us back home. Even as I opened the portal everything around me faded to black as I woke.

So cool!!!! I wish I could remember.

I was in a strange place. I looked around to see where I was. I was not alone. I saw that Nomad was there with me. He was in his half-jaguar half human form. He didn't seem to notice me at all. I went over to Nomad to see what was going on. He looked over at me and said we could go to Loaf's inner world now. I asked who or what Loaf was. Nomad looked at me strangely but he didn't answer. He opened a portal. We both went through it…

On the other side we were in a dreary place. There were dark clouds everywhere and the land was barren. I saw there was someone there with us. It was a man. I looked at him closer. I didn't recognize him. He was looking at Nomad. I thought I saw something strange in the dead trees. I went over to investigate it. I found an ugly little thing in the trees. It was about the size of a large house cat. It was black and shiny with slime. It had many little reptilian legs. It had two clusters of red eyes. Each cluster of eyes had six eyes in it. It had a large mouth that took up most of its face. The mouth was filled with what appeared to be too many razor sharp teeth to fit properly in the mouth. It seemed to be grinning at me. It was UGLY. It had a long tail that resembled a scorpion tail. The end of the scorpion tail had two nasty looking sharp stingers. It was now crawling towards me. I had the idea I didn't want to be bitten or stung. I knew it was extremely venomous. Getting bit or stung would surely lead to a slow and painful demise. I also didn't want to let it get away. It would surely bite or sting someone else. I looked around on the ground. I found a fallen tree branch. The end of the branch was sharp. I picked up the branch and stabbed it into the ugly creature. It let out an awful sounding squeal of pain. I stabbed it again and again and again. It was still wriggling. I kept stabbing it. I heard Nomad behind me. He said fire might work better. He threw a fireball at it and it was incinerated. I looked at Nomad. Maybe I should do a reality check. I levitated off of the ground and decided I must be dreaming. At this point I became lucid…


I looked over at Nomad and asked what was going on. He said he had just helped Loaf fight a dream demon. He said the only thing to do now was to get Loaf's inner world cleaned up. I looked at the dark clouds. A bit of sunshine would help. I focused on the song Black Hole Sun to create a vortex portal. The portal sucked up all of the black clouds and then closed. Now the sky was bright and blue. I looked and saw a bunch of plants growing. Nomad was making plants grow. The man, who I was assuming was Loaf, said he was tired. He was holding something which he threw on the ground. He turned and walked away, saying he was going to bed. Plants started sprouting in his footsteps. I looked at the strange plants. They grew quickly. Buds formed and then the buds bloomed into loaves of bread. I could smell the scent of fresh bread wafting through the newly grown areas. I picked a loaf of bread and tasted it. It was fresh and warm and had a slight butter taste. It was very good. Nomad picked another loaf of bread. I could see his was stuffed with various veggies.

Nomad opened a portal. I followed him through it. I didn't know where we were going but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We were in a barren desert area now. A woman was running from a pack of… um… ugly things. Reptilian things about the size of a Rottweiler with huge teeth. There were about eight of them. Nomad transformed into a huge jaguar. He was big enough to scoop up six of them in one bite. He did so. Yuck!

"Nomad!" I said, "That's disgusting!"

He muttered something incoherent and then chomped on the things a couple of times before spitting them out. Gross!

"You're right," he said, "That was disgusting! Let's see if you can change to Queen of Night, blast them, and then change right back.

"No Queen of Night," I said, "The last time I did that I almost killed Altaïr.

"But you didn't," Nomad said. I was getting annoyed at him. He didn't seem to quite realize the possible consequences of me losing control of my abilities like that.

"There's no one here you can hurt," Nomad said, "The dream demons deserve it, the rest of us have our bodies safe in our home world."

I considered that a bit… he had a point. There was no one around that I could really hurt. I was a bit reluctant. I saw the previously chewed-on dream demons were recovering. The two remaining ones had chased the woman a bit farther. She had turned into a wolf and was attacking them now.

Note: I always slip to semi-lucidity when I am Queen of Night...

I transformed into Queen of Night and summoned a massive blast of fire and lightning from the sky that hit the six dream demon things with a huge explosion. Definitely overkill… But none the less amusing. They were instantly vaporized. The wolf tore one of the demon things apart. The other one tried to fly away. I used a blast of lightning to incinerate it in the sky. Now to see if I can change back. I focused on changing back to my normal form. Nothing was happening. I focused harder. Nomad was saying there was one more stop to make.

"I can't go anywhere else!" I yelled at him, mad, "Look at me!"

"Spike says he thinks you look sexy like that," Nomad commented.

I threw a blast of lightning and fire at Nomad. It knocked him about ten feet in the opposite direction. "I'm fucking psychotic, you idiot!"

Nomad opened a portal. He went through it. I followed him without really thinking about it. On the other side we were in a house of some kind. I was having problems focusing. Nomad said there was a lot of negative energy there. I told him I knew there was a lot of negative energy there… and it was me! He said no, he meant the ambient negative energy. I was annoyed at him still. He didn't seem to take the idea of the negative energy getting out of control seriously. The idea of the darkness getting out… Then I reminded myself that if I let myself get mad that would make things that much worse. I closed my eyes and focused on a calming song by Enya called Epona. It is a really pretty song. After that song I focused on Black Hole Sun to create a vortex portal. The portal opened and sucked out a large amount of negative energy. I was still feeling pissed, though. I flew through my own portal…

I was now flying over a desert. I looked down to see what was going on. There was a group of armed people chasing another group of people who didn't appear to be armed. I flew down lower. I heard talk of capturing slaves from the pursuing group. Slavers! Perfect! I summoned a massive blast of fire and lightning mixed together and slammed it to the ground in the middle of the group of slavers. They were all blasted into subatomic particles. There was only a crater where they had been. Now that felt good. I had missed one. There was a man running across the desert away from both me and the potential slaves they had been pursuing. I followed him. I cornered him near a pile of rocks where he fell to his knees and cowered there begging for his life. I made a bolt of lightning strike on each side of him. A foul odor wafted over from the pathetic loser. He had soiled himself. He was sobbing openly. Praying to some god I've never heard of and begging for mercy at the same time. Seeing him like that was amusing. Another bolt of lightning put an end to his pathetic display. I found it disturbing that I had killed someone again without them being a current and continuing threat. That's not what I call control. But at least it wasn't an innocent. I landed near where the slaver had cowered and focused again on calming down. Everything around me faded to black as I woke.